


Fox Mulder, A.K.A. D.B. of Another Kind

by Ursula



Category: The X-Files
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2001-03-15
Updated: 2001-03-15
Packaged: 2018-11-20 09:20:29
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 11,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11332872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ursula/pseuds/Ursula
Summary: This is not canon. This is an alternative universe. Certain events have changed and roles have reversed. Bad things happened to good people.





	Fox Mulder, A.K.A. D.B. of Another Kind

**Author's Note:**

> Note from alice ttlg, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [The Basement](http://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Basement), which moved to the AO3 to ensure the stories are always available and so that authors may have complete control of their own works. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project in June 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [The Basement's collection profile](http://archiveofourown.org/collections/thebasement/profile).

 

Fox Mulder, A.K.A. D.B. Of Another Kind by Ursula

TITLE: Fox Mulder, A.K.A. D.B. Of Another Kind  
AUTHOR: Ursula <>  
FANDOM: X Files  
PAIRING: Fox Mulder and Alex Krycek  
RATING: NC-17  
SUMMARY: This is not canon. This is an alternative universe. Certain events have changed and roles have reversed. Bad things happened to good people.  
DISCLAIMER: Send the subpoena to an alternate reality where Chris Carter owns the boys. Oh, wait, that's this one? Damn!  
ARCHIVE PERMISSION: Anywhere, as a complete story. If you have a constructive critique and wish to use a portion, contact me directly.  
SERIES OR SEQUEL: This is a standalone story and no sequel is planned.  
OTHER WEBSITE: The Theban band gives me shelter at: http://www.squidge.org/terma/ursula/ursula.htm  
WARNING: This is slash. This is about romance, passion, people making irrational decisions, and doesn't even have a happy ending.  
AUTHOR NOTES: I wrote the original story a long time ago, but it was never archived as a whole. People have asked where the story was so I have written a substantially different tale with the same twist as before.  
Dedicated to: Karen-Leigh, friend and beta and Mary Dieringer who motivated me to resurrect this story

* * *

Fox Mulder, A.K.A. D.B. Of Another Kind  
by Ursula

Arms and legs like pistons, lap after lap, FBI agent Alex Krycek glided through the warm water of the Hoover gym's pool. He wanted to forget, forget his sister, forget the conspiracy, and forget that the truth was always snatched away just as his fingertips touched any part of it.

"Agent Krycek? Krycek?" interrupted the voice of his latest cross to bear.

Flipping over, Alex rested on his back, rivulets of water running over his sleek Speedo clad body.

Agent Spender was gawky and nervous, his curly hair springing out of the gel he used to hold it down. He was all elbows and knees like a puppy dog at that awkward stage. He wore a conservative suit and a striped tie, but the suit hung on him loosely as if he had blindly grabbed it off a rack. His voice sounded odd and strained as he said, "Agent Krycek?"

Alex replied, "Spender, what's up?"

Alex pulled himself up from the pool and grabbed a towel. He thought Spender was watching him too closely. Alex sent him a mischievous challenging look and the young agent blushed and turned away for a moment.

Adjusted his red Speedo swimsuit, which had ridden up tightly against his groin, Alex took his time drying off, enjoying the rough rub of the towel over his skin. He put his leg up on a bench, stretching to cool from the hard laps he had swam.

"Krycek? There's a situation going down. They want you out there right away," Spender said. He sounded as if he had been raised on the East Coast, but his accent wasn't pronounced. His only comment about the past was that he was a "Navy Brat". Just like Scully, Alex thought, and just like Scully, Jeff Spender was probably sent to report to someone who was not AD Skinner. Now, Scully was an ally, his best friend, and sometime lover. Jeff, however, Jeff might not be as honest as Scully.

In any event, Alex would be glad to get out of the office even with Spender. He asked, "What kind of situation?"

Spender replied, "Hostage negotiation."

Frowning, Alex wondered why they had asked for him; that wasn't his field of expertise. He was the head of the X Files or had been until recently. His specialty was the kind of bizarre cases that no one else could solve...the paranormal and case involving alleged alien abductions.

Wondering if this was some kind of trap, Alex asked, "And they want me?"

Spender replied. "Yeah."

The younger agent shifted from foot to foot as if Alex was keeping him from a badly needed trip to the john. Alex noticed the man was always nervous around him although he had claimed that he admired Alex's theories and said that he was a believer. Alex had done some checking and found out that Spender's mother was well known to MUFON. She claimed to be a multiple abductee so perhaps Spender wasn't lying. Maybe he needed to prove that his mother was not as crazy as people said that she was.

That still didn't mean the man was not a spy. Alex shrugged internally. He could play the game with the big boys. A known spy was a handy thing. Throw him a few misleading crumbs and Alex would remain free for what really mattered, finding his sister and exposing the men who had taken her.

His brain working its usual multilevel game, Alex asked, "What for?"

Spender cleared his throat and waved a manila file. He replied, "The guy escaped a mental institution. He's got four people at gun point in an office building, claims he's being controlled by aliens."

Two Years previously: September 7, 1992

Fox Mulder dozed in front of his TV. An old movie was playing. Clanging swordplay occasionally woke him from his nodding slumber. His head throbbed from the bullet wound that had put him on permanent disability from the FBI. Blinking, he staggered up and went to get an aspirin.

Looking in the mirror, he saw a handsome, unshaven face, hazel eyes, untidy hair, and a strong, arched somewhat large nose. He looked as haunted as he felt.

Memories tormented him, vague frightening images that persisted no matter how he tried to dismiss him. His last case six months ago had started out like most of his others. A chain of disappearances led to a suspect who babbled about aliens and claimed that the missing women were taken to the stars. Somehow everything had gone wrong and Mulder had found himself being driven at gunpoint to a ski lodge, one he had recently visited under much better circumstances. It became hazy from there until he woke in a hospital and was told that he had been shot in the head. No one could explain where he was for three weeks between the day he was kidnapped and the day a hunter found him barely breathing in the woods that surrounded the ski lodge.

As the pain subsided, he returned to the sofa bed in which he slept. A few moments later, he found himself sitting straight up in bed, his skin prickling with terror. Looking around the room, he sensed something in the air, but saw nothing amiss. His border collie, Samantha, wagged her tail and looked at him alertly. He patted her head and settled back down to sleep without turning off the TV. Shortly after, Mulder felt rather than saw the bright lights. He was carried up screaming in terror and immobile, remembering everything that happened to him on Sky Land Mountain.

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

August 3, 1994

**Assholes, frigging, stupid assholes, ** Mulder thought as a guard walked him in restraints to Dr. Hakkie's office. He hated the way the place smelled, the color of the walls, the stiff feel of the denim jeans and shirt they made him wear. Most of all Mulder hated Hakkie. At first, Mulder had been amused, the man looked like Abe Lincoln, but when he had once told him so, the man had nodded his sharp-featured head and noted the comment.

Remembering an experiment they had discussed in class when he was at Oxford, Mulder recalled the case of the student who was sent in to observe a mental institution. When the truth was revealed, some of the staff argued that the student was insane. His case file was full of observations that the man had exhibited note-taking behavior and that he seemed to be always watching the staff. They had diagnosed him as a paranoid case with delusions.

Remembering that he had found this case amusing at the time, it was less funny now. He wore the same diagnosis, paranoid with delusions of grandeur. It made sense he supposed if you didn't know the truth...that the aliens weren't out there. No, they were here and they were evil.

Hakkie had once asked him why he felt so superior to everyone in the hospital. Mulder had refused to answer as he had still hoped to be released at that point in time. However the truth was that Hakkie was the one that he scorned. Mulder had a doctorate in psychology from Oxford with a minor in criminology although he had chosen to work for the FBI as a profiler instead of practicing as a therapist. Hakkie was a psychiatrist, a giver of medications, who had attended some third rate college and would never have made it in private practice. His brain was a badly written textbook and he was a humorless, petty bureaucrat who relished his power over the inmates.

Crossing his thin legs and adjusting the crease of his cheap suit, Hakkie said, "Fox, I understand that you have not been taking your medication again. You know that you need the drugs. We give you the medication to help you so you don't hurt yourself or anyone again."

Mulder said, "Call me Mulder, I don't like to be called Fox." Hakkie wrote another note about that.

Trying to explain, Mulder said, "I'm not crazy, Dr. Hakkie. You just don't understand. They are coming for me and I can't sleep. They come for you in your sleep."

Mulder rocked in his chair. He was acting, he hoped, just trying to play along until he had a chance to escape and get some place safe.

That patronizing voice should be recorded, placed in a tape player and rammed up Hakkie's sharp boned rear. He said, "Mulder, you need that medication or you'll get worse. I'm going to give you a shot to help you sleep."

"We'll look after you. Keep you safe," Hakkie said with a shallow smile.

"You don't know how good that makes me feel," Mulder said, letting his contempt show now. They would never let him out. Never...

Panic rose like bile in Mulder's throat. They were close again. He could feel them in the prickling of hair on his arms, in the itch of his teeth, in the cold fear, black like...like oil that threatened to drown him. He could feel them close again and he knew that he could not endure another abduction. He would rather die than allow the aliens to take him.

There had been blinding lights, strange noises, someone screaming in a high-pitched continuous tone, and huge eyed, gray faces peering down at him. He could not forget the thousand violations of his body...instruments hooking into his nose and the sharp pain as tiny drills invaded his teeth. He remembered a whirring sound as a saw lowered toward him and the moment when his skin split. Later there was deeper pain as the bone was cut. He could not resist. He could not even move. It was as if he was a body to autopsy, but he was alive and he had felt every moment of it.

As the doctor turned to prepare medication, Mulder saw his chance. He had been a trained agent; he knew how to fight. Hakkie went down as he struck him with his joined fists.

A moment later, Mulder was out of the office. Over and over, he had rehearsed this moment. The guard on duty was long past his prime, slow, old, and lazy. Ruthlessly, Mulder struck the man on the back of his neck and then stabbed him with the pen he had grabbed from Doctor Hakkie's desk. When Mulder whirled away from the groaning guard, he had the man's gun in his hand. He had to defend himself. He had to get away.

"Stop, stop," Hakkie yelled, approaching him with wide spread arms and open palmed hands.

"Stay back. I'm armed, you idiot!" Mulder said. He held the gun with both hands, his eyes on the approach of other guards.

"You know you don't want to do this. You were a FBI agent, an officer of the law. You don't want to hurt anyone," Hakkie pleaded.

It wasn't his choice then. He let the man keep coming until he was close enough and then Mulder darted out a hand, capturing Hakkie. A moment later, the gun was pressed to the man's head.

"Don't make me kill him," Mulder said.

He could guess that he looked as mad as they thought that he was as he slowly backed away, keeping the shaking psychiatrist in front of him. Let them think he was crazy, because at this moment he knew that he would kill or do whatever it took to prevent himself from being taken again.

There were keys in Hakkie's jacket pocket. A moment of pressure and the murmured statement, "Tell me where your car is or I'll snap your fucking neck," got him the location of the man's car.

Initially, Mulder planned to dump Hakkie when he switched cars. There was a park and ride not far from the hospital. He chose a tan Saturn that looked like the last bureau car that he had driven and hot-wired the ignition. He started to pull out and drive away from Hakkie when a cold thought intruded. He could trade him. Let the aliens take Hakkie, let him find out what it was like to be robbed of your life, to suffer pain that devastated you and, when you thought that you were home and safe, to be judged insane and locked away when you tried to warn others. So, with Hakkie tied up and residing in the trunk, Mulder had headed for the city.

Once he had taken the turnoff to the exit, he had lost track of his plan. The pressure eased that had been pulling him some place. He couldn't remember where to go. The dull aching misery in his teeth, in the back of his neck, in his skull, in his nose, and in his stomach still told him that THEY were coming and that they would get him if he just waited. However, he had not intention of waiting and he would not be taken. He would do anything necessary to prevent that.

The place was high, he remembered. His head was throbbing and his memory was clouded. He fingered the tiny scar where one of the implants itched and burned. Where had they taken him?

Up, he remembered, up and white. It was bisected with lines that stretched black into the horizon. If he could only close his eyes for a moment and sleep, his head would clear, but there wasn't time. More images came back, it had been cold and after a moment, he had realized that he had been here before.

Before the aliens had brought him to the place, Mulder had been there on vacation. He remembered going to a travel agency and booking a weekend at cabin with a lover. They had glided effortlessly across white clad slopes, laughing into the brisk air. Later there had been kisses, a soft male voice moaning in his ear as they had made love in the small, warm cabin. It had been one of the last sane, safe memories of his life.

If he couldn't remember in this car, he knew where he could go to jog his recollection. The travel agency was a small one, but he liked the service. It was friendly and personal...he liked personal service. He looked at Hakkie and asked, "You ever go skiing, Hakkie?"

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

FBI Headquarters, Washington, August 4th

Spender, the obsequious little weasel, had checked out an agency car and stood ready with the key, his bureau issued face as bland as ever. Alex let him drive; he preferred to think, laying out strategy and trying to decide what game was really afoot.

The kid was a good driver, Alex thought. He managed to obey most of the traffic laws without yielding an inch to anyone. At this clip, they reached the square outside the Travel Time travel agency ahead of schedule.

The glass fronted travel office was where the escaped mental patient, Fox Mulder, was holding four people hostage. Alex took a moment to calmly assess the situation, noting the SWAT team shooters had rifles aimed at the windows of the building. They looked eager and nervous, making him glad that he was not one of the hostages, who were, he thought, nearly at as much risk from these panting hounds of the law as from the disturbed man who held them prisoner.

Staring at the tightly shaded windows of the travel agency, Alex wondered about the man inside. He claimed to be an abductee and so he was mad. That's what they said. When Alex's sister, Kolya, had disappeared, at first, Alex told his parents and everyone else what he really saw. No one believed him, not even his mother. They had started to say he had gone mad just as they said Mulder had.

That night would never let him go. He had been eleven and his sister had been thirteen. Their parents had gone out and Kolya was supposed to be watching Alex. Instead, she was flirting on the phone with her boyfriend.

Bored, he had fallen asleep in front of the TV until the blare of static woke him. The room was flooded with light, strange light that seemed to bend and curve around the room. His sister was floating in the air, being drawn upwards, her hair streaming down and her nightgown billowing like sails.

Kolya screamed Alex's name, but he was so frozen in terror that he couldn't even tell her that he loved her. If Alex hadn't learned to lie and agree that it must have been flashlights that had blinded him so he couldn't see who took her then he might have been locked up the way they had locked Mulder away.

"You ready to go in?" Spender asked, his voice indicated that Alex had been dwelling in the past long enough for his mental absence to be noticed.

"Yeah, let's get it on," Alex said.

An uniformed officer directed Alex and his shadow, Spender, to a building across from the travel agency. The command center was filled with noise and motion with agents buzzing everywhere. The place hummed with mobile phones, laptops, and fax machines.

Under his breath, Alex hummed the theme to Alice's Restaurant. He always liked that part where they brought in all the crime fighting equipment. It had been Mama's favorite movie. She used to watch it over and over with her children, swearing them to secrecy against papa who thought it was American and decadent. Anyway, it looked like they loved having all the gadgets out, all of this machinery to contain one tormented soul. Alex shook his head. He preferred to face his subject, man on man, his brain against their mind.

A tall, African-American woman, who looked forty going on fifty, claimed Alex immediately. "Agent Krycek?" she said. She didn't sound impressed.

"Yeah." Alex replied. The woman was stern and she looked as tough as Walter Skinner. Alex took an instant dislike to her.

The woman said, "I'm Lucy Kazdin, negotiations commander. Thanks for coming. Let me show you what we've got here. His name's Fox Mulder. He's armed with a nine-millimeter Smith & Wesson handgun. He has one nine-round magazine. It is our belief he's prepared to use the gun and not afraid to die."

Just past Kazdin, there was an easel with the words 'honesty, containment, and conciliation' written in large red letters. Oh, shit, right out of the hostage negotiation seminar he had attended...although he thought most of the course material was bullshit, he had done very well at the training. After all, that was how he'd kept his X-Files running as long as he had...conciliate the upper echelon, contain the gossip, and, well, honesty might have its place, but Alex had never found it particularly useful in most circumstances.

That his strategy had failed was the only way that Alex knew he had stumbled upon something important in one of his recent cases. Too bad he wasn't sure which mystery pointed to the goal, the magic string that would unravel the whole tangle. He could have pulled it off on his own. He had sources and hidden allies. The FBI was just a convenient way to sniff out the truth; the day it stopped being useful to him was the day he quit.

Alex forced his attention back to here and now. He asked, "What does he want?"

"Safe passage for himself and his original hostage, a shrink named Hakkie." Kazdin replied.

Alex winced at her description of the psychiatrist. He asked, "Passage to where?"

Kazdin smirked, "He's bent on taking the Doctor with him to an alien abduction site, only he can't quite remember where the site is so he stopped at a travel agency.

Alex asked, "Is he lucid?"

The woman looked at Alex strangely, but answered seriously, "Yes, but he's off his medication so he's manic, ranting about marks on his body, homing devices, a lot of other nonsense.

Alex's interest caught asked, "Like what?"

Kazdin jerked her head in an unconscious gesture of rejection. She explained, "This whole alien abduction business, which I guess you know something about." The tone of her voice spoke volumes. She sounded as if she was humoring the escapee from the psychiatric hospital not an FBI agent.

Alex replied, "Yeah, yeah, but I've never been in a hostage negotiation before."

"We'll take you through it," Kazdin instantly answered.

Alex thought this was a royal "We" until another agent stepped up. He was an older man with a lot of gray in his light brown hair and worry wrinkles lining his forehead and under his eyes.

Kazdin said, "Agent Rich is our advisory commander. He and I will be coaching you."

"What Mr. Mulder needs right now is a friend, someone who appears to understand him and can appeal to his sense of reason," Agent Rich said. He nodded as if in agreement with his own statement.

Holding back a snappy remark about 'don't we all need a friend', Alex nodded and put on his good little agent face. He asked, "Do we know anything about his abduction experience?"

Agent Rich raised his eyebrows and made eye contact with Agent Kazdin. His expression said clearly, *Was this guy for real?*

Stepping forward and violating Alex's personal space, Kazdin asked, "You really believe in this stuff, Agent Krycek?"

Knowing the woman was playing psychological games, Alex edged forward even closer until they were toe to toe. She was a big woman, who used her size and bearing to intimidate. Alex however was tall if not as wide. He stared her in the eye until she moved back.

His voice at its growling best, Alex asked, "Is that a problem?"

Kazdin looked so very unhappy with Alex. This was not a new experience for him. You had to develop a thick skin if you talked about UFOs and worked for the FBI.

"We're here to save lives. You'll begin negotiations immediately. Every three hours we'll reevaluate your progress, advice you, and update you if we decide to use force," Kazdin said.

She was clenching her jaw...sure-fire case for TMJ, Alex thought, betting her dentist had her in one of those night restraints for temporomandibular disease. Fitting if it was true, many abductees were told that TMJ caused their tooth drilling nightmares.

"If this man is an abductee I need to know more about him, um, his personal history. Each abduction case is different," Alex told her.

Kazdin replied, "That material has not been made available to us." She plainly thought that she was humoring an agent not much more sane than the man who was holding four people at gunpoint.

Alex snapped back, "And nobody's thought to call the hospital for records?"

"Look, Agent Krycek. The guy's a psycho. Your object is to keep him on the phone. The longer you do, the more chance he's not going to kill anybody. We stop to do a Freudian analysis, next thing you know we've got four dead hostages. So whatever crap you have to make up about space men or UFO s, just keep him on the phone," Kazdin replied. She turned away, dismissing Alex.

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

Across the street in the travel agency, Mulder paced and stroked the gun with sweating fingers. He had never been good in siege-like situations even when he was a profiler, brought in to deal with psychotic killers.

The two women and the one male employee of the travel agency were not tied, as Mulder hated restraints. They sat like three monkeys in a row on the floor, jerking in fright every time Mulder so much as scratched his nose.

Hakkie was tied to a chair; Mulder had made an exception of him, pay back for all the times the man had ordered him into restraints. Mulder thought the guy had a fetish buried beneath his prissy exterior. He seemed to have loved visiting Mulder when four point restraints pinned him helplessly to his bed. His face had always raked up and down Mulder's helpless body as he shivered with flashbacks of being aboard the ship, unable to move just as he was is in this hospital. After one of these episodes, Hakkie had always increased Mulder's medications making his mind and body felt heavy as lead. Until the dosage was slowly ebbed down, Mulder would barely be able to stay awake, drifting around the ward in a stupor.

The psychologist was a fool who would have never made it through the FBI academy much less been chosen for Oxford. Hakkie was trying to calm him down, but Mulder knew every technique that the man was trying. Hell, he had written some of them.

"You don't want to harm these people," Hakkie argued, "Let them go.

"I won't hurt them, but you are coming with me. You will see what it is like to be vivisected by the aliens," he told the psychiatrist. "Then you can try your medications and your therapy on yourself and see if it helps."

The new FBI agent called again. Mulder liked his voice, wanted to know what he looked like. He hadn't respected either of the two other agents. The woman, Lucy Kazdin, he had known when he was an agent and he hadn't liked her then. As for Agent Rich, he had that 'how many months am I from retirement tone' in his voice.

This new agent, Krycek, sounded intelligent and he wasn't reading from the book. Krycek seemed to be listening to what Mulder had to say and it didn't hurt that he had a great voice, husky, low and soothing. How long had it been since the last time Mulder had heard a voice like that, where it belonged, in bed with him? He peered out the window, wondering if he could spot the owner of the voice.

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

At the situation command post, Alex felt as if he was trying to get it up for a porn movie with cameras rolling in a room with a creepy film crew. As he talked to Mulder, other agents pressed close. Agent Spender had been glued to Alex's ass all morning. Alex admitted that he could think of a few guys that he wouldn't mind having glued to his ass, but Spender didn't do it for him.

Glancing through at the all points bulletin that had been issued, Alex thought it was a waste for such a good looking man to be in these circumstances. Alex even liked the man's voice, which ranged from soft and monotone to a harsher demanding sound. The pattern of the conversation was revealing.

When Mulder took on a snotty tone and cited hostage situation psychology right back at him, Alex snarled and rounded on Kazdin to ask her about the man's history.

Reluctantly, Kazdin finally said, "All right, he is a former FBI agent. He was a profiler who retired from duty after being shot. Most of the last two years he's spent in the mental hospital."

Agent Rich was so sure that the proven way would work, but Mulder wasn't falling for any of it although he seemed to enjoy sparring with Alex in their ongoing phone battles.

Now that he thought about it, Alex realized that he had studied cases that Fox Mulder had solved. The man was brilliant and wouldn't fall for any trite psychological methods. Alex thought that the only way he would gain Mulder's trust was to respect what the man had been.

Knowing what Mulder had been through, if he really was an abductee, Alex felt a natural sympathy. From the things that people Alex had interviewed said, he didn't blame the man for trying anything rather than go back. When Alex tried to tell the other agents, the only one that seemed interested was Spender, improving Alex's opinion of the young man.

Looking around for Spender, Alex heard the operations chief sending him out for coffee. Shit, Spender probably loved that, as ambitious as he was, but it just proved what a bitch Lucy Kazdin could be. Shot the poor kid down like an expert...

However, as long as Spender was out of hearing range, it was a great time to call Scully. His former partner, and sometime lover, was supportive and promised that she would look up the information that Alex needed, the truth about Fox Mulder.

While he was talking to Scully, a bright white flash lit the room. In the confusion, Alex heard shots, a volley of them. When the luminescence faded, all of the electricity was out. Alex thought it was a stupid ass plan to confuse Mulder, but the SWAT team said they didn't do it. Kazdin claimed that a power station had blown.

When Alex got back on the line with Mulder, The man said, "I guess we're going to need a doctor."

Moments later, Alex was adjusting a paramedic uniform. He was not sure why he was convinced that, if he could just talk to Mulder in person, he could get the hostages freed. At the same time, Alex found himself trying not to admit that he was feeling a strange fascination with the deranged agent.

Agent Rich droned in his ear, "Now, you'll have almost full ambient hearing loss in this ear. Your sense of balance might be affected slightly, particularly if you have to move quickly or get into a physical situation. If you get trapped or held in the building for some reason, we'll be able to warn you if there's a tactical assault. Now remember, he might have four or five rounds left."

The man reached out and adjusted Alex's bulletproof vest, making him flinch away from the too intimate gesture. "Now, there's a wireless microphone hidden in the top of this flak jacket. Even with you and Mulder speaking in a normal tone of voice, we should be able to hear anything you say up to a hundred yards."

Nodding, Alex buttoned the EMT shirt over the vest. Great, he could only hope that hand-to-hand combat was not going to be on the agenda. He was uncomfortable and felt as if he couldn't move.

"Make every attempt to keep these devices concealed. You put a normal telephone handset to that ear, it'll cause feedback and reveal that you're wired," Rich lectured.

'Sure, right', Alex thought, 'God, man, I'm a special agent not a rookie no matter how young I look to you.'

Kazdin bore down in their direction, like a runaway plane plowing down the runway. She was a scary woman, who made Krycek glad that Skinner was his boss. Skinner played tough, but there were ways to get around him. In fact, Alex was sure that the stern AD had a soft spot for him and Scully.

"You really want to do this?" Kazdin asked.

"Yeah," Alex replied, his mind had already raced ahead to Mulder. He felt close now, close to a truth and sure that at least some of his answers were in that travel agency.

Eager to begin, Alex started walking, followed by Agent Rich and Kazdin. He could see Spender keeping his distance and looking as if he wanted to argue about the decision. Curious man, Jeff Spender...

"Your job will be to deliver medical help to the hostage. Anything else is just a bonus. You're to get in and get out. You are not to risk your own life. Whatever you believe..." Kazdin said in her clipped voice. She scowled at him, reminding him of his first grade teacher, one of the few that had taken a dislike to him.

"Don't jump into his delusion. I can't negotiate with him if he thinks I believe him," Alex related.

*Always give'em what they want to hear...a lot of wheels ran smoother with ample applications of bullshit at the right times.*

Like a somewhat surprised teacher when her slowest pupil came up with the correct answer, Kazdin agreed, "Right."

Pointing at the weary looking black man standing next to her, she said, "This is Agent Janus, he's a trained medic. He'll work on the hostage. You're to keep Fox Mulder talking. Like I said, if he's talking, he's not going to shoot anybody including you."

The tactical commander tugged on Alex's sleeve and pulled him aside, he said, "Now, I've got three snipers out there. Anything you can do to get him to the front door, all we need is one shot to the medulla oblongata."

Rich tapped the back of Alex's skull where the medulla oblongata was located. *Give me a break,* Alex thought. *Did you even look at my jacket?* I'm a psychologist...I know the parts of the brain better than you ever will."

Giving Janus a reassuring smile, Alex nodded. It wasn't going to happen. He wouldn't give the sniper a clear target. At least not until he had a chance to talk to Fox Mulder, find out if the man had really been abducted. Kolya, Alex thought; every time he interviewed a new victim, he asked if they had seen a woman with green eyes and dark hair, just like his. Perhaps, Fox Mulder would be the one.

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

Walking unarmed into the direct line of fire of a dangerous mad man was not something Alex did easily. Janus, carrying his orange case, looked just as nervous. They passed the fountain in the small courtyard between the two buildings. Alex noticed overturned coffee cups and abandoned fast food bags. Give Mulder some credit; it had been noon when the man at the travel agency hit the alarm. He could have picked off people like he was at a clay pigeon shoot. Instead, he had not fired until what ever caused the blackout alarmed him.

Taking a deep breath, Alex put on his game face. He knocked on the door and was greeted by a young, very frightened black woman.

Mulder's voice, already a familiar one, said, "Just unlock the door and move back."

The woman obeyed, scurrying back to sit with two other people in terrified silence on the floor. Alex's trained eyes cased the room. It was bright, modern, white walls decorated with travel posters. There was a counter and an open door, which seemed to lead to a small office. Another door off the left was closed.

According to the plan that Alex had seen, this led to a small storeroom and beyond that to a unisex restroom. Kazdin had been very clear about not letting Mulder lure him to that room. It had no windows and there was no way that the snipers could get a shot at Mulder in there.

There he was. Alex almost caught his breath. He'd read some place that you knew when you met the one you loved or the one who would kill you. Frankly, Mulder looked as if either was a possibility. Even partially hidden by the shadows, he shone and drew Alex's eyes.

The man was tall, thin, almost lanky, but with powerful shoulders and a full round ass. His nose was too big. His mouth was incredible, a lower lip that seemed almost over ripe, like a succulent piece of fruit that seemed near to bursting its tender skin with the sweet, sweet juices within. Mulder's hazel eyes burned into Alex, brimming with life, intensity, and intelligence. Sharp angular cheekbones defined the bird of prey face, but the forehead was broad and mild underneath a tousled head of radiant hair.

That described Mulder as well as saying a lightening bolt is a sudden visual manifestation of an electrical discharge.

A nod seemed to tell Alex that Mulder understood the tension, which now scintillated the air in the room. However, Mulder snarled, "Hands in the air!"

Lifting his hands, Alex kept his eyes on Mulder, couldn't take his eyes off him in fact.

"Put the kit on the floor slowly," Mulder said, his voice shaking from its controlled pitch just ever so slightly.

Janus obeyed. Alex spared him a moment, almost surprised to find the man was not as caught by Mulder's beauty as he was.

"We're unarmed," Alex said.

Mulder stepped into the light. Alex swallowed and crazily his heart was racing not with fear, but with absolute lust.

"We just want to help the injured," Alex said, with a nod to Janus.

An older woman said, "Over here." She was tending the injured man, a man in his early fifties or late forties. The man's white shirt was spotted with blood. His eyes were glassy from shock and he was very pale.

"Face the door! Both of you! That's right," Mulder said.

After Alex and Janus obeyed, Mulder's hand searched rapidly over Janus and lingered over Alex. "Flak jackets? Think that will help if I shoot you here?"

A hand clouted the side of Alex's ear. He winced as a resonance was engendered from the challenged earphone.

"Not armed, huh? You're FBI, aren't you? Got a gun in the kit?" Mulder asked.

"No," Alex replied, watching as Mulder checked the medical case.

"Are you wearing a wire?" Mulder asked.

"No," Alex lied, "We're just here to help."

"Okay..." Mulder replied as he finished his search. He was panther-like, agile, not a weight lifter, Alex would bet, he moved like a thoroughbred, all spirit, sinew, and heart.

"Nobody's going to try anything, Mulder," Alex reassured. He couldn't help drawing the name out. This was insane. What was he thinking? Hell, he wasn't thinking. All he knew was he wanted Mulder, didn't care about anything other than getting alone with this man. He found that saving Mulder had stepped up to as high a level in his priorities as getting the hostages out.

"That's right, good. You want to work with him," Kazdin's voice whispered in his ear.

Shaking his head a little, the resonance was awful, Alex glided to one side, drawing the gun to him.

"We just want to make sure no one else gets hurt," Alex said.

Mulder was settling down, positioning himself so he could cover both Alex and Janus as the paramedic-trained agent knelt to check on the wounded man.

Alex respected Mulder's professional skills. This would have been a partner that he could have respected as much as he did Scully and, instinctively, Alex knew Mulder was a worthy opponent.

"What's your name?" Mulder demanded of Alex.

"Krycek, Alex Krycek," Alex answered.

"Well, Mr. Krycek, Alex, just do your business and get out," Mulder said, his voice calm now.

Walking around the man tied to an office chair, Mulder kept his gun trained on Alex as he moved closer to Janus. "How's he doing?" Mulder asked.

The older woman said, "He's bad." She brushed back a stray hair from her brassy blonde upswept do.

The younger woman quivered at her side, scared to death. Alex knew that he had to get these people out. He didn't need to have anyone get hysterical and push Mulder over the edge.

Janus, a through professional said, "Hi, my name is Janus. I'm a paramedic. Hold on, we're going to take care of you, okay?"

The injured man nodded, his eyes uneasily shifting between the man treating him and the man who had shot him.

"I didn't want to hurt anyone. I only fired one shot when the lights went out. I didn't even think I hit anyone. Hell, maybe it was the SWAT team. They pumped enough rounds in here that we're lucky no one else was hit."

Keeping his voice low and intimate, Alex said, "They want to work with you, Mulder, but you've got to work with them. Why not let the others go?"

Apparently, Mulder had already thought of that. He said, "Hakkie's going with me."

Dropping his voice ever more hypnotically lower, Alex said, "Mulder, let the women go then."

Mulder's hand tightened on the gun. He was on edge, nearly quivering with nervous energy. His sharp eyes roved the room as if looking for a solution, a way out.

Alex said, "Were they here, Mulder? The light... was that them?"

"Don't bullshit me," Mulder said. A faint sardonic smile lifted the corner of the tender lines of the mouth.

"Well, we lost time. I checked my watch. Isn't that what happens? Time stops. Doesn't it?" Alex said. He sounded even to himself, so intimate, his voice holding that caressing growl that turned even inhibited Ms. Dana Scully into a tigress in his bed.

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

What was happening to him? Mulder couldn't take his eyes off the young agent. He wanted to trust him. Krycek listened to him. His eyes did not seem able to lie. God, he had never seen eyes like that before.

Still, Mulder's heart beat faster not with love, but with fear. He remembered that last time. He had been in bed in his cabin, his safe place far from the maddening pace of the city. He'd hoped it was a place so far away and remote that THEY would never find him.

Yet Mulder had woken, screaming. The light lifted him like a giant hand to that place, to the chair where they cut him and pierced him. He couldn't even find a place to hide in his own head. He remembered later, looking up at alien faces pressed to observation windows, watching him with their mockery of human expressions...

"Mulder?" the voice said, pulling him back to the present.

"Leave me alone. You don't know. You're making things up," Mulder accused the man.

It was a voice made of velvet. Mulder could have sunk down in the smoky depths of it. Krycek said, "Isn't that what they've been saying to you, Mulder? That you're making it up?"

"They say it's all inside my head. All they want to do is just give me more drugs." Mulder said, shooting a hateful gaze at the psychiatrist.

"I hear you, Mulder," Krycek said, sounding so intimate. His green eyes invited Mulder to look into them.

"You hear me 'cause I got a gun," Mulder replied.

"No. I believe your story," the young agent said. His face offered itself like a flower to his sun. Mulder wanted to trust Krycek. They were connected somehow as if in another world, they were partners...more than partners...lovers. Krycek's voice sounded earnest, wistful, and so intimate that all Mulder could think about was being alone with him.

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

Kazdin's voice hissed in Alex's ear. "No, you're feeding into his psychosis."

Alex stepped forward, a hand outstretched. "I know you're afraid. I know the pain and the fear you must feel."

"Just listen to me," Kazdin snapped, "Don't try to identify with him."

"I've talked to people, Mulder. People just like you, and nobody wanted to believe," Alex said.

Alex knew he had Mulder. If he could just concentrate on what he was doing. It was only half Alex's natural ability as a con man. He also believed Mulder. Who could look into those vital, compelling eyes and see just a mad man?

"This man's going to die unless we get him to a hospital," Janus said. His shoulders slumped wearily as he knelt back on the floor.

Watching Mulder's expression, Alex sensed this was a man of conscience, not the kind of man who would easily accept standing by and watching someone die.

"Why don't you let him go, Mulder? There's no reason this man has to die. Come on, Mulder. You've got the power. Let him go," Alex said.

Mulder's eyes met Alex's. They locked gazes. Both of them took deep breaths.

"Okay," Mulder agreed.

"Good. You made the right choice. Now, we're just going to move him carefully to the door," Alex said.

"No! Baldy can go. But you stay. I'm trading the bald man for you,"

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

The whispering in his ears was getting to Alex. He heard Kazdin say, "Damn it!"

Meanwhile, Janus walked out with the wounded man. Alex saw other agents including Agent Spender come over to help him.

"Now, let's see how good a liar you are," Mulder said.

"I'm telling the truth, Mulder," Alex swore easily, whatever the truth was. It did keep rearranging itself.

"How could you ever know what I've been through? How could anyone know?" Mulder raged. His voice broke at the end and Alex wanted to comfort him. It was crazy. It couldn't be Stockholm syndrome. What was it?

"It happened to my sister," Alex said at last.

"Don't you think you can lie to save their lives. I want some honesty! I want some respect!" Mulder said.

"How does it happen, Mulder? Driving in your car? Alone in bed at night? When do they come to you? You're paralyzed, aren't you? Unable to move. Sometimes, you can't even breathe. You feel an electric shock go through your body." Alex said.

"You're going to push him right over the edge," Kazdin said. "I need a clear picture of what's going on in there," She snapped at someone else.

Someone's voice distantly echoed agreement as Kazdin said, "You're choosing a dangerous course, Agent Krycek."

"There are beings, aren't there, Mulder? Are they tall or small?" Alex asked.

"No! No!" Mulder said.

"Diminutive..." Alex mused, as he remembered what the other abductees had told him.

Mulder closed his eyes and tensed as he started to remember. Alex never wanted to see what made a brave man like Mulder quiver with that hellish horror-struck expression twisting his intelligent features.

"They take you, Mulder, against your will," Alex said, his voice undulating like a snake charmer's flute.

"He's going to kill us," the older woman said.

Alex shot her a look, trying to warn her to keep silent and let him weave his spell.

"You're powerless. Sometimes, you can't even speak. It's always the same, nobody can help you. Where do they take you, Mulder? Is there a ship? Do they take you to a ship, Mulder? How do you get there? Are you conscious of being transported?" Alex's voice crooned, holding Mulder's entire attention.

"They're, uh... they're talking to me, but they don't speak," Mulder said bleakly, as he slumped to the floor, sitting with his back leaning against one of the filing cabinets that stood by one of the modern desks.

"I can hear what they're saying. They can... read my mind."

"That's right. Abductees call it "mind scan." It's a kind of telepathy," Alex said.

"I'm telling them that I don't want to go... but they never listen," Mulder said, his soft monotone even quieter with horror.

Alex spared another glance to the women. They clung to each other, but the younger woman was listening as if she was hearing something that she understood and believed.

"They know what I'm saying. But they just... go right on about their business," Mulder said, drawing deep gasping breaths. Pointing at Hakkie, he said, "Tell him what their business is. Tell him!"

"They take you aboard the ship to perform the tests," Alex said, eyes moving from Hakkie to Mulder. Mulder nodded slightly, shifting the gun in his hand as if it was too heavy to hold.

"They... drilled my teeth." Mulder screamed, "They drilled holes in my damn teeth!"

His eyes roved the room and when they came back to Alex, he changed the subject abruptly. "How old was your sister when they took her?

"She was thirteen," Alex said.

"I've seen kids sometimes, young girls," Mulder said quietly, "Some of them all look alike, rows and rows of identical twins."

"What do they do to them?" Alex asked, his voice trembling.

Mulder's eyes softened and he said, "You don't want to know, Alex. I try to tell them not to be afraid."

Gracefully climbing to his feet, Mulder walked over to Alex and said, "Who are you really, Alex Krycek? You're different. Different like I was. They're going to break you, Alex. Shake you and break you and remake you."

"They won't,' Alex said, "Because I know how to bend."

"What in the hell are you doing," hissed Kazdin, "You're feeding into his paranoid fantasies.

Wetting his lips, Alex turned his face toward Mulder and said, "I want you to let them go, Mulder. Look at them. They can't take much more. What do you think is going to happen then? Keep me. I'm a FBI agent. I'm valuable, a profiler. Why not have someone who will cooperate, keep calm. I'm the one you want, Mulder," Alex said.

"Yeah," Mulder agreed, "You're the one."

The man leaned close and whispered in Alex's ear, "You hear that, bitch? You want to be the agent in charge when four innocent people get killed? I'm telling you to back up. Get those snipers moved back."

"Shiiit," Alex said, sagging back, "You knew all the time."

"I've been down, but that doesn't mean I've been out of it," Mulder said, "I've kept up on my profession's technology."

Kazdin's voice sounded bleakly in Alex's ear. "Tell him that we'll move the snipers back."

"She'll move them back," Alex said to Mulder.

"Now listen to me. You can let the others go, Mulder. Let the others go and take me," Alex pleaded.

"Oh... they hear you talking like that, they're going to have your ass," Mulder said, running the gun down Alex's chest. He leaned suddenly nearer and whispered, "If you want them to be free, then you agree. You come with me to that back room and we talk. We talk without the wire, Alex."

Scully's voice suddenly replaced Kazdin's. She said, "Alex, you have to listen to me. It's a trick. He's a pathological liar due to an brain injury he received on duty."

Listening, Alex shook his head. He wanted the hostages free and for some reason he was sure that Mulder wouldn't shoot him. He said, "Scully, I'm going to take this thing out of my ear for a while. Mulder will let the others go. Just keep them from coming in. Okay? You can do that for me?"

Her voice shaking, Scully asked, "Alex, are you sure?"

"Yeah, I want to talk to Mulder. I want to find out what he knows," Alex said.

Scully said slowly as if he might not understand her otherwise, "I told you, Alex, he doesn't know anything. He can't help you find your sister. He was never abducted. I looked at the records."

"Records can be altered, Scully," Alex said, "You know that. Haven't I at least proved that to you? Besides, I want to get the others out of here. You keep things under control out there or I won't be around the next time you wonder whether something's really a mosquito bite."

Nodding at Mulder, Alex reached up and tried to feel for the insert in his ear. He could touch it, but not grasp it to get it out.

"Okay," Mulder said, "Now everyone just remain calm and form a single line like good kids as you go out the door."

"You can untie the good doctor now," Mulder said, "I'm sick of old honest Abe's looks anyway."

"Be careful," Hakkie whispered, "He is a dangerous man."

Alex said, "But I like dangerous men, doctor. Some say that I am a dangerous man."

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

His original mission was accomplished, Alex realized as the two women and Dr. Hakkie filed out, one at a time. Now, however, he wanted to find out what Mulder knew. Alex locked the door behind the people.

The man was very intelligent and his survival instincts were nearly as good as Alex's own. He was well away from the door and away from any clear line of fire. He had backed nearly into the small room, the one without any windows.

"Come, here, Alex. Let me do something about that ache in your ear," Mulder purred.

There was no other way to describe it except purring. Alex's cock twitched with the invitation in that voice. What the hell was going on with him? He wasn't that horny? Scully might not be everything he wanted, but she was beautiful and loyal...just like Lassie, the sarcastic little voice in his head whispered.

Alex's steps glided across the room. He knew what he was doing, knew it was stupid and that he could be going to his death. What the hell...living could be sweeter on the edge.

The room was dark and cluttered. Boxes of copy paper were stacked against one wall. A couch covered with a brightly crocheted cover occupied about a third of it. Mulder had the first aid kit open. He held up a pair of tweezers and said, "Let's get private, Alex."

Scully's voice sounded in his ear, tinny and small, just like Tinkerbelle. "Alex, please, stop listening to him. Alex, you can't do this..."

Smiling slightly, Alex tilted his head toward Mulder and said, "Take it out then. It's been making me dizzy anyway."

Mulder had a nice touch. It thrilled through Alex, just the brush of his hands against Alex's neck. The man's smile when he tilted Alex's chin up to show him the insert was like nuclear energy. Alex was irradiated, damned. He looked the same, but Fox Mulder had changed him.

The gasp of breath could have been anything; at least, Alex hoped that it would be taken for something other than irrational, irresistible arousal. He took the earplug and carefully walked over and out of the room to place it carefully in the business card tray that stood empty on the counter. He stripped off the blue uniform shirt and laid it on top, adding the flak jacket and lastly stripping off the wire, wincing as one or two of his sparse chest hairs were pulled out by the adhesive tape.

A cold breeze contracted his nipples. Alex shivered, his eyes closed. Whatever connection he and Fox Mulder had must be explored...

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

When Mulder saw the way Alex Krycek was posed, he knew that nothing else mattered for the moment. The aliens had taken it all and drained him dry. Every thing he once was, the brilliant profiler, the accomplished agent with friends, respect, and a career that was expected to ascend in steady progression, was gone. Worse than that, he realized that he hadn't even dared to live between the first abduction and the next.

That beautiful man in there with his eyes like green glowing jewels, his hair a rich chestnut hue, highlighted with darker streaks of ebony, and his body...well, if a sculptor dreamed of one perfect statue and wrought it. If that supreme artistry came to life, Alex Krycek would be the result. Mulder wanted him, not to worship as a statue or to admire with only his eyes. He needed to touch him, to make love to him, to find out if there was still anything left of Fox Mulder in this shell that the aliens had left.

"You know what I want," Mulder said as the man approached, "But if you don't...if you don't want to do it."

"This is the craziest thing that I have ever done, but, yeah, I want it as badly as you do. Fox Mulder, I don't know if you can help me find my sister. I don't even know if you're really an abductee. I just know that I want you and need you. We belong together," Alex declared.

Mulder wanted it a different way. If he could show Alex who he had been before they took him and gutted him. Yet, there was no way back. Maybe this was the gift of the gods...first they had made him mad and now they gave him this one last chance to be loved, to love. He didn't think that he was going to make it out of this place alive, but death was something he could face. It was THEM that he could not bear. Death would be a relief for it meant they would never take him again.

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

The man looked ashamed of his body as he stripped off the cheap jeans and tee shirt that they had dressed him in at the hospital. He was ivory in the dim light. His body was gaunt, but Alex could see the deep chest and the powerful arms developed only by swimming, swimming as Alex did, every day, lap after lap, until the worries and cares of the world finally fled. He must have been a runner too before this happened to him. His legs were pylons of lean muscle, beautiful and well defined. His ass was round, each cheek a taunt curve of surprisingly full flesh.

"You are wonderful," Alex said, laughter rippling from his chest. He kicked off his shoes and socks. Walking over, he took Mulder's hand and guided it to the closure of his suit pants. "Undress me," he said, his voice, an invocation to whatever fate toyed with them in this manner.

With a sob-like sound, Mulder dropped to his knees before Alex. He knelt there looking up at Alex for long moments, his hands idly kneading the fabric of his pant. "I want to remember...if they take me again, I hope they won't steal this from me too."

Alex's hands wove gentle patterns in Fox Mulder's hair. He had found something, someone that meant as much to him as his lost Kolya and as much as defeating the aliens, whom he knew had taken her. The hell of it was, why now? Why Mulder? Why a lover wearing the face of an enemy?

"We'd better hurry," Alex said, "Take our pleasures while we may."

"Yeah," Mulder said, and his fingers unbuttoned Alex's pants. Laughing in a ripple that quietly shook his body, Mulder caught the zipper tongue in his teeth and pulled it down. His hands trailed a claim down every inch of Alex's hips and legs before cupping Alex's foot for a moment as he slid the fabric clear.

Alex could feel his lungs sucking in air as if the inferno of their lust was burning the very oxygen from the room. His stomach heaved, almost hurting with his deep rapid breaths.

"Get up," Alex bade, "Now, let's have it all."

The instant they fell on the couch, they were devouring each other. Alex thought, "We've known each other before, in a thousand realities, across the span of history, we've always known, always found each other again."

Had he said it aloud because Mulder answered, "Yes, Alex, we have and we always will. Beautiful love, remember me..."

Always...

They were twin flames that burned together. Lips touched. Tongues dueled and both won. Hands stroked, slid over sweating flesh, modeling the clay of their bodies one to another. Mouths captured the essence of each other, bitter mortal flavor exploding and claiming. Voices cried together. Like the mating of eagles...they flew in each other's arms. When they parted, it was like plummeting to earth from heaven.

As they lay resting, as close as mortal flesh could press, Mulder suddenly raised his head. He said, "I hear something. Like drilling. What are they doing?"

Pushing his lover away, Alex leapt up. It was by the book. Damn Kazdin was always going by the book!

"They are going to use gas, Mulder," Alex shot out rapidly as he grabbed his clothing and dressed himself.

"You just stay in here. Cover your face so it won't make you too sick. I'll tell them you didn't hurt me. I can fix this, Mulder, I know that I can," Alex said.

Mulder was dressing too, but not as quickly as Alex. He was slower because his hazel eyes were absorbing every detail of his lover. "It's okay," Mulder said, "I'm not afraid now. They can't ever take this from me even if they cut it from my brain. I know you, I love you to the last cell of me."

Still barefoot, his chest bare, Alex reminded, "Stay here. You let me handle this, Mulder."

"Yeah," Mulder answered as he pulled his jeans on. "Make sure they hear you coming. See if that wire still works."

"Good idea," Alex said. Going back into the main room, he picked up the wire from the counter and said, "Everything is under control...can you hear me?"

There was no answer until the world shattered...fragments in his mind's eye:

A grenade shattering the window...sonic screaming first and then a second one and gas filling the room. Alex yelled, "No, fuck it, no...Scully tell them I'm all right!"

It sounded as if the office was shattering around him. The front door crashed in and voices shouted, "FBI! On the floor!"

Coughing, wiping at his streaming eyes, Alex hurriedly obeyed. Then his heart went still...

"Alex, Alex? Are you all right?" Mulder's voice called.

Tears falling, Alex screamed, "Mulder, get down! Get down. Get down. Oh please, God, get down!"

"Alex, is it them? Alex, where are you? Don't let them take you...I'll go! Take me! Take me!"

And the shot was so near as Alex scrambled up too late and saw Mulder fall...

He covered him with his body, protecting him a heartbeat too late. He saw Scully's red hair spilling over the gas mask, nearly as scarlet in the spotlights as Mulder's blood seeping through his fingers.

He didn't remember being pried from his beloved's body. He didn't remember fighting his way back to hear Scully say, "He's alive."

Kazdin's face loomed in front of him. She grabbed his arms and asked, "What did that man do to you, Agent Krycek? Were you sexually molested? That couch...there's evidence."

Breaking her grip, Alex smiled at her, a smile those who knew him would have seen as a sign of danger. Voice rough with coughing, he said, "No, I wasn't sexually molested. We fucked, Commander Kazdin. But you won't hear me say that again...unless you try to prosecute that man for rape. I'm going to be a hero, the man who traded himself for four hostages. Don't screw it up, Kazdin, you could be looking pretty good."

Staring her down, Alex waited until he was sure that it had sunk in. Kazdin said, "I've heard that you can be a cold son of a bitch..."

"You heard right. Don't push me. Leave me alone for now and I'll play nice for the press later," Alex said. His eyes were burning and his words were interrupted by a series of hacking gasps.

Scully came over and claimed him, letting him lean on her, comforting him. She said, "Alex, come on. I'll take you to the hospital."

"Same one as Mulder?" Alex choked out.

"Yes," Scully said.

"Is he going to make it?" Alex demanded.

"God willing," Scully answered.

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

By pure force of will, Alex evicted everyone from the critical care unit where Mulder lay. He knelt by the bed, laying his head by Mulder's hand. He wasn't praying.

Prayer had abandoned him long ago when Kolya had not been returned, when his father spiraled deeper and deeper into the bottle...when one day, the ambulance took his mama away to the hospital and she never came home again.

Alex had been fourteen when he decided that God, if he existed, wouldn't help him. From that day on, he had never faltered, never cried until today. He had ripped ruthlessly through school, competed fiercely in the academy, and never left a case unsolved until he had been granted the department he demanded as a reward, the X Files...a way to find Kolya and damn the creatures that took her.

Alex didn't pray, nor did he weep, but his soul burned as he waited for his lover to awake. It was not long. Mulder's hand, restrained, reached long fingers to touch his head in benediction. The oxygen tube silenced his voice, but his lips moved in a faint smile.

"You're going to be okay," Alex said, "I'll get you the best lawyer...you were injured in the line of duty. You just have to learn to lie, Mulder, lie to the bastards."

A faint nod...Alex stood and kissed him on the cheek.

Lucy Kazdin's harsh voice said with complete distaste, "Agent Krycek, we have a bargain. The press is here..."

Walking down the corridor, Kazdin said, "I don't want you to say anything about abductees or aliens."

Turning to face him, Kazdin snapped, "Tell them that Mulder is," she sneered, "a wounded hero if you must. Not one word about his claims."

"Agreed," Alex said, "I'm a reasonable man."

"I wonder how reasonable...how did you persuade Bob Mason that it was one of our bullets that wounded him," Kazdin asked.

"The evidence persuaded him, ballistics," Alex said.

"Evidence that was misplaced after that judgment was made," Kazdin said.

"I never touched it," Alex said, "I've been here."

The elevator had a mirror and Alex straightening his tie. "How do I look?" he asked.

"Like a hero, Agent Krycek, remember to smile at me for the cameras," Kazdin instructed. She punched the buttons for the ground floor conference room.

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

The barrage of cameras followed Alex out of the room. He left Kazdin still hogging the glory light. She was happy enough. Case solved. Everything neat and tidy.

Walking faster, Alex hit the elevator button. The doors slid closed. Alex leaned back, thinking. They would put Mulder back in the hospital, but Alex could guide him, get him to speak the lies that would persuade them he had given up his delusions. Soon enough, they could be together...

It went dead. The lights flickered and it felt very strange as if gravity had come undone. "No!" Alex screamed, pounding on the unyielding doors... He hit the emergency button over and over, but nothing happened.

By the time, the elevator lurched and restarted its ascent; Alex slumped against the wall, trembling with rage and with fear for Mulder. He stood as the seventh floor indicator came on. When the doors opened, he ran out into the sound of sirens and panicked voices.

The window was open; the restraints lay empty. There was a blanket crumpled by the splayed and melted looking bars that had kept Mulder supposedly safe. Alex looked out and saw nothing. Nothing but the sky, empty of everything but stars.

A police officer tried to speak to him, but Alex pushed him away. He found the stairs and ran down, story after story, finding some numbing to his pain in the punishing rhythm.

The police officers searching the parking lot, looking in every clump of bush and in every car were fools. They were looking down, looking in the wrong direction. Alex lifted his face and stared at the stars.

Standing in the hospital parking lot, Alex stared at upwards. The noise of a woman's heels alerted him that Scully had found him. He whirled to look at her and said, "I suppose you have a rational explanation for the way that Mulder disappeared too?

Scully put her hand on his arm and said, "No, I don't. We'll find him, Alex."

FOXMULDERDBOFANOTHERKIND

She had lost part of him, her partner, her lover, but what they had went beyond passion. She knew it wouldn't last, that he was always looking for something that he had never really had.

Alex didn't really hear her. He was staring at the sky. She waited. Eventually, he would need her help and she would give it.

Watching that beautiful face glaring at the stars, Scully thought that from the beginning of time, some had always crumpled when the burdens grew too heavy.

But some became giants and, like Prometheus, they would war with the gods. Scully knew that Alex was such a man.

He'd steal back his fire from heaven...

Fox Mulder...

19:21 03/04/01


End file.
